Chrome extension turns GMail into email marketing tool

Google revolutionised the market when it launched GMail back in 2004 (remember Hotmail?), and convinced millions of us to abandon email software like Outlook and turn to its web-based interface for all our email needs. However, GMail limits the number of emails you can send per day (500 for GMail or 2000 for G-Suite) and doesn’t provide the other analytics and followup tools you need for an email marketing campaign, so people turn to email service providers (ESPs) like MailChimp and Constant Contact to get the job done.

These ESPs do a great job of handling email campaigns for millions of users, but for those looking for a solution to send out emails to hundreds or a few thousand users, then a Chrome extension called GMass is exactly what you need – and it works from within the GMail interface.

GMass lets you connect to Google Sheets, schedule mail merge campaigns, and offers an easy way to track opens and clicks right from your inbox. The tight GMail integrations means you can also create email lists based on search results form your inbox, and most importantly in today’s world of email marketing – it lets you send out up to eight automated follow up emails until you receive a response. And it gets around GMail’s sending limits and spam filters with some clever multi-day scheduling.

The firm’s latest feature where you can get your emails proofread by an English expert to correct common spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors is something all of us wish existed before we sent out that last newsletter with a glaring mistake.

GMass is not going to replace ESPs that have built their businesses and infrastructure on efficiently delivering millions of emails as quickly as possible, but for those who want simplicity and newsletter functionality built right into their email application of choice – then it’s a great option. Moreover, even if you use an ESP like MailChimp to send out your mass email newsletters, the followup and conversation threading in the Gmail/GMass combination can save you a lot of time searching for people’s replies.

There’s applications for a properly organised mailing list for everything from organising sports teams to family gatherings to weddings – and GMass makes that easier than ever. Rumour has it some of Google own employees even use the tools to keep their own lists organised and avoid the possible chaos of getting it wrong.